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The effect of diet, exercise, and lifestyle intervention on childhood obesity: A network meta-analysis
1Food Science and Nutrition, Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea.
Insights
Exercise without parental involvement was the most effective intervention for childhood obesity, followed by diet with parental involvement. These interventions significantly improved outcomes compared to no intervention in children aged 6-12 years.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Endocrinology
- Obesity Research
- Public Health Interventions
Background:
- Limited and controversial trials exist on interventions for overweight children.
- Childhood obesity is a significant health concern requiring effective management strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a network meta-analysis on the efficacy of various interventions for children with obesity (aged 6-12 years).
Main Methods:
- Searched multiple databases (CENTRAL, MEDLINE, PubMed, Web of Science) for relevant trials.
- Included 24 studies with pre-post obesity outcomes and direct comparisons.
- Calculated mean differences and P-scores to determine treatment efficacy and rank probabilities.
Main Results:
- Interventions like exercise without parents (E w/o P), diet with parents (D w/P), and diet, exercise, and lifestyle with parents (D+E+L w/P) were significantly effective.
- E w/o P showed the highest P-score, indicating superior effectiveness.
- D w/P and D+E+L w/P also demonstrated significant efficacy compared to no intervention.
Conclusions:
- Exercise without parental involvement is a highly effective intervention for childhood obesity.
- Diet-based interventions involving parents are also beneficial.
- These findings provide evidence-based strategies for managing childhood obesity.
Background & Aims:
Trials investigating the efficacy of different interventions for overweight children are limited and controversial. Therefore, the aim of this study is to perform a network meta-analysis on the efficacy of various interventions for children with obesity (an average age of 6-12 years old).
Methods:
We obtained the data of trials reporting pre-post obesity relevant outcomes (e.g. BMI, BMI z-score, percent body fat, or percent overweight) from the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE (Ovid), PubMed, and Web of Science databases (completed before February 25, 2019) and included at least one pair of direct comparison groups. The mean difference of outcomes and their associated 95% CI were used to determine the efficacy. The P-score was calculated to illustrate the rank probability of various treatments for different outcomes using a network meta-analysis. Our meta-analysis included 24 studies that evaluated the interventions for childhood obesity.
Results:
All 24 trials had no high risk of bias. Interventions such as exercise without parents (E w/o P); diet with parents (D w/P); and diet, exercise, and lifestyle with parents (D+E+L w/P) were significantly effective for children with obesity when compared with no intervention.
Conclusions:
E w/o P exhibited the highest P-score, with the D w/P and D+E+L w/P ranks having P-scores of 0.7486 and 0.5464, respectively. Moreover, the results indicate that E w/o P, D w/P, and D+E+L w/P were significantly effective treatments for children with obesity when compared with no intervention.
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